Exodus 20:19

Summary

The people ask Moses to act as an intermediary, requesting that he speak to them directly while God does not, out of fear of dying if God addresses them himself. The verse is reported speech embedded in a narrative frame.

Key words

• yomeru ("they said", H0559) — qal narrative form, continuing the sequence of events with "and then they said."
• daber ("speak", H1696G) — piel imperative, an intensive command form addressed to Moses ("you speak").
• nishma'ah ("let us listen", H8085G) — a first-person volitive form (cohortative) expressing the people's own intention or wish, paired with the imperative daber.
• yedaber ("he speak", H1696G) — piel jussive, negated by al (H0408), expressing a prohibition in the third person ("let him not speak").
• Elohim ("God", H0430G) — a plural noun form that here governs the singular verb yedaber ("he speak," not "they speak"), a common pattern for this divine name.

What the text says

The verse opens with the narrative verb yomeru ("they said," H0559), introducing direct speech addressed to Moses (el-Mosheh, H0413/H4872). The core request has two paired volitive forms: the piel imperative daber ("speak," H1696G) directed at Moses, followed by the cohortative nishma'ah ("let us listen," H8085G). This pairing expresses a request-and-response structure: Moses is to speak, and the people will listen in turn.

The second half of the verse mirrors this structure but negates it: al yedaber ("let him not speak," H1696G in jussive form) applies the same verb root, dabar, to Elohim (H0430G) instead of Moses. Although Elohim is morphologically plural, it takes the singular jussive yedaber, a grammatical pattern already visible in the verb agreement itself.

The clause closes with pen namut ("lest we die," H6435 + H4191), where pen introduces a negative purpose or fear clause — the stated reason for wanting Moses, not God, to speak.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate renders Elohim (H0430G) as "Dominus" ("the Lord") rather than a direct equivalent of "God," differing from both the Hebrew term and the LXX's ho theos ("the God"), which follows the Hebrew more closely in sense. The LXX's mē apothanōmen ("lest we die") corresponds structurally to the Hebrew pen namut, using a subjunctive negative purpose construction similar in function to the Hebrew pen-clause.